>49 
^V 1 



PIE T Y S E C U K E S 



NATION'S PROSPERITY. 



A TH A NKSG R^ 1 NG DISCO URSE. 



PIETY SECURES THE NATION'S PROSPERITY. 



J\. 



iliitifa|wii| ^fewiwe, 



By Rev. G-. S. PLUMLEY. 



PREACIIKD FN TXIE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHUECH, METUCHEN, NEW JERSEY, 



OiO. Tla'uii-scla.TS^, TDi 



5X- v, laGS- 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 




NEW YORK : 

F. SOMERS, PRINTER, 32 BBEKMAN STREET. 
1866. 



^. 



^3 



[CORRESPONDKNCK,] 

Metuchkn, N. Jersey, December \8ili, 1865. 

The Rev. G. S. Pliimley, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. 
Rev. and Dear Sir : 

The desire has been expressed by members of your congregation that your Thanks- 
giving Sermon appear in print. It is believed that the ideas wliich it so ably presents 
should be placed in a form more durable than m:inuscript, and that its circulation be- 
yond the bounds of your parish will be productive of good. Will you furnish us with 
a copy for publication ? 
By complying with this request you will oblige us and those whom we represent. 
Respectfully Yours, 
Ezra M. Hunt, William M. Ross, 

J. W. Weed, A. W. Kellogg, 

John J. Clarkson. 



Metuchen, N. J., December 20th, 1805. 
To Messrs. Hunt, Ross, and others. 
Gentlemen : 
In accordance with your request, I send herewith the sermon preached to our con- 
gregation on the late Thanksgiving day. 

Very Trul}' Yours, 

Gardiner Spring Plumlet. 



THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE. 



CiiKisTiAN Hearers : 

We are assembled this day under circumstances such as Time has 
not witnessed. After months of apprehension and prayer, during 
which we liave suifered sore trials, and seen garments rolled in blood, 
God has blessed his people with peace. And our rulers, as is be- 
coming, in fitting words invite us to the house of the Lord to render 
to him the honor and the praise. 

These are their proclamations in obedience to which we are met 
together. 

Whereas, it has pleased Alniiglity God, during the year which is now coming to an 
end, to relieve our beloved country from the scourge of civil war, and to permit us to 
secure the blessings of peace, unity and harmony, with a great enlargement of civil 
liberty ; and 

Whereas, Our Heavenly Father has also during the year graciously averted from 
us the calamities of foreign war, pestilence and famine, while our granaries are full of 
the fruits of an abundant season ; and 

Whereas, Righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people: 

Now, therefore I, Andueav Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby re- 
commend to the people thereof, that they do set apart and observe the first Thursday 
of December, as a day of national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for 
these deliverances and blessings. 

And I do further lecommend that on tliat occasion the whole ])eoijle make con- 
fession of our national sins against His infinite goodness, and with one heart and one 
mind implore the Divine guidance in the ways of national virtue and holiness. 

In testimony wliereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the 
United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Wasliington, this twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence 
of the United States tlie ninetieth. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
By the President : 

Wm. H. Sewaut>, Secretary of State. 



It hns pleased God, during the year now drawing to a close, to remove from our 
country the scourge of civil war, to permit tlie reestal)lislnncnt of tlie Naticmal Gov- 
ernment over a restored Union, to jweserve our people irom famine and pestilence, 
and to bestow upon us abundant harvests. 

For these and other blessings, our devout thanks arc due to Him who is the giver 
of all good. 

Therefore I, Joel Pakkkr, Governor of the State of New Jersey, do hereby desig- 
nate and ap])oint, Thursday, the seventh day of December next, as a day of Tlianks- 
Ki\ing and Prayer, and recommend the people of this State to asscnil)lc on that day 
in their usnid i)laces of piddic worshi]), to give thanks to Almighty God for the ma.ni- 
fold blessings bestowed on us during the past year, and in the midst of thanksgiving 
humbly to pray that he will speedily rejjair the ravages of war, bind up the broken- 
hearted, and give consolation to those who sorrow for the slain ; that he will move 
the hearts of our people to remember with gratitude the heroic services of the soldiers 
of the Union, cherish the memory of those who have fallen, and with liberal hand 
provide for the widow and the orphan, and especially that he will jn-eserve our beloved 
country from civil strife and fi-om foreign war, advance our nation in the path of true 
greatness, and cause us as a peoj^le continually to rely for guidance on the Most High. 

Given under my hand and privy seal, at Ti-enton, the thirteenth day of Novem- 
ber, A.D., eighteen hundred and sixty five. 

JOEL PARKER. 
Attest : 

S. M. DicivixsoN, Private Secretary. 

As appropriate to this most interesting and memorable occasion we 
invite you to meditate upon the words of Holy Scripture recorded in 

Jeremiah xvii. 12 : — "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of 
our sanctuary." 

When the children of Israel had entered into the promised laud and 
encamped in the plains of Jericho, a remarkable vision was vouchsafed 
to assure them of divine assistance and complete success. "It came 
to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and 
looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his 
sword drawn in his hand : and Joshua went unto him, and said unto 
him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries ? And he said. Nay ;" — 
that is, I come not as private soldier to engage in either army in a 
subordinate capacity, — "but as captain of the host of the Lord am I 
now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship." 
At once he recognizes his Commander in chief Beholding in that 
humble form of one like unto the son of man the King of kings, 
victorious general of Israel as he is, he looses his shoes from his feet 
and renders to his sovereign the submissive homage that he owes. 
The glorious high throne where that king sits in serene and j^owerful 
majesty is the place of sanctuary for liis people. Its erection, its con- 
tinuance, its occupancy are pledges that complete triumph shall ensue 



to Israel, and decided overthrow crush without remedy all of Israel's 
0}31}0sing foes. 

Such was the well-grounded confidence of Joshua, and such the 
eqiially assured hope of Jeremiah, the author of our text. Living in 
a period when weighty responsibilities rested upon his nation, while 
many were filled with disquietude, and some, their heart departing 
from the Lord, trusted in man and made flesh their arm ; with com- 
forting words of truth he urges his countrymen to commit all their 
great interests to Jehovah, in the calm assurance that piety will secure 
the prosperity of their commonwealth. 

"Blessed is tlie man that trusteth in Jicitovaii, and whose hope 
Jehovah is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and 
that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat 
Cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the 
year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." "A glorious 
high throne from the begiiining is the place of our sanctuary." 

Not less complete than was this perfect trust of God's people in an- 
cient days, should ours be ; and while we adopt its exultant utterance 
as the burden of our Thanksgiving song over blessings and delivei'- 
ances such as wei'e never surpassed, let us not forget the lesson it sug- 
gests and enforces. 

Tri'e Piety avill secure ouk nation's prosperity, and deliver 

IT FROJI ALL THE FOES THAT MAY THREATEN ITS PERMjVNENCE OR ITS 
PEACE. 

And that we may become deeply impressed with the necessity for 
true piety in the present crisis of our national existence, let us con- 
template, — 

I. Some of the foes that threaten the prosperity of our country. 

By the phrase, " our country," we understand not merely the 
national territory as bounded by geographical lines, but the form of 
government itself under which we live, and the constitution of society 
among us. 

At the present time the world witnesses but few governments 
purely despotic. The fear of revolution, jealousy of other powerful 
States, even in the remote East the influence of the great European 
powers and the Republic of the United States of America, serve to 



check the else uncontrolled authovity of otherwise unlimited monarchs. 
Ill Russia and P^-ance the Emperor's power is to-day thus circum- 
scribed by tlie force of public opinion and the dependence of national 
prosperity upon the inexorable laws of trade, finance, and commercial 
intercourse. Great Britain, though usually styled a limited monarchy, 
is in fact an aristocratical republic. The forms of a monarchy are in- 
deed retained, but the real governing power, instead of being in the 
hands of the sovereign, is in tho.se of the well-born, educated, and 
wealthy classes. 

The form of government of our country, the United States of 
America, is a deraocratical republic, that is, a government by the 
people through their representatives. The following ideas are insep- 
arable from it. 

Chrktianitii . — We do not mean by this statement that the name 
of the Lord Jesus Christ is distinctly mentioned in our Constitution ; 
— the fact is otherwise : nor that our rulers ai'e ineligible to office un- 
less Christians ; — on the contrary, the lack of piety in high places of 
authority is a cause for profound sadness. But this is the truth, — 
Christianity was the conti'oUing principle of vast numbers of the 
early settlers in this land. Persecution on account of their Christian 
faith drove to these shores tlie Puiitans of England, the Pluguenots 
of France and the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland. An early 
enactment in relation to Pennsylvania is a specimen of the enunciation 
of those fundamental principles respecting religion which have finally 
been embodied in our national Constitution: — "That all persons 
living in this province, who confess and acknowledge one Almighty 
and Eternal God to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world, 
and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and 
justly in civil society, shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for 
their religious persuasion or practice, in matters of fjiith or worship ; 
nor shall they be compelled, at any time, to frequent or maintain any 
religious worship, place or ministry, whatever." So long as our 
Constitution remains unchanged no one can be persecuted for adhering 
to the Christian religion or obeying its dictates. 

The laws of the land prohibiting murder, theft, sabbath breaking, 
profaneness, and other vices are based upon God's word. The death 
penalty for murder takes its sanction from the same authority. In 
our treaties with other nations, in our treatment of prisoners of Avar, 
and in our dealings with savages in our territories, however defective 
or open to censure the national conduct may be, it is universally con- 



ceded among us that it ought to be founded upon Christian principles. 
Upon our current coin is seen tlie christian mot£o, " In God we trust." 
Christianity is then inseparable from the assemblage of ideas included 
in a view of our country. 

Another idea insei)arable from our country is JJcmocrari/. All who 
are competent are to enjoy the right of governing through their 
chosen representatives. There are, doubtless, imperfections in carrying 
out this principle into practice. Some of tlie incompetent, those io-- 
norant perhaps even of the words and letters of written language, 
are voters ; while some of those competent are excluded from the 
right of suffrage: but the principle notwithstanding is still acknowl- 
edged as a fundamental one in our conception of the American re- 
public, that the people are the sole source of authority, and that their 
will, as expressed by their free ballots, is to mould the national 
policy. 

Fmtcrmty. — This is a term which, though not unfrequently upon 
the lips and banners of European patriots, has its proper signiticauce 
only in a republic like ours. The largest liberty of immigration to 
this land by natives of all other portions of the world who desire to 
adopt our country as their home, with a welcome to the rights, im- 
munities, and privileges of native born citizens, — this is our national 
recognition of all men as our brethren. The President of the United 
States must be "a natural-born citizen," but, with the exception of 
the occupancy of that office, all other advantages enjoyed by 
natives of the United States our Constitution offers to those of other 
lands who desire that they and their children may live under it. 

This principle results from tradition, since our citizenship was 
originally composed of emigrants from foreign countries. It is, 
moreover, maintained among us by the argument that if in the very 
commencement of its history the national destiny was shaped by 
those of foreign birth, it can not be disastrous to us as a people to 
continue welcoming such to a share in our commonwealth, especially 
since the ratio between the number of immigrants and natural-born 
citizens is daily smaller, the latter by this fact continually exerting in 
all our affiiirs a more preponderating influence. To fill and to subdue 
our vast territory we must have enterprising swarms of population, 
while the world's progress demands that we invite to our varied soil 
and climate the dwellers of every land. 

Unlimited extension of territorial boundaries in the formation of United 
States. 



If thirty-seven States, differing in productions and modes of life, 
with some contrasts of interests and sentiment among their inhabi- 
tants, can cohere under one constitution as a well cemented whole ; 
there seems to be no limit, save that which the ocean forms, to con- 
fine our nation's expanse. The Constitution of the United States of 
America is so framed as to give all necessary right of control to the 
individual States in matters not affecting the general welfare, vi'hich, 
in turn, is committed to a central government, in our day ];)roved to 
be strong enough to compel these States to an indissoluble union, and 
a mutual avoidance of the infringement by one or a few of them 
upon the interests and proper claims of the others. 

When, therefore, in the exercise of Christian patriotism at this 
nineteenth century of our Lord's era, citizens of the United States of 
America speak of their country, they intend by the phrase a land in 
the choicer hemisphere of the wofld, not easily bounded as to terri- 
torial limits, distinguished in its subdivisions as manj'- States, yet but 
one republic, offering citizenshi]) and opportunities for advancement 
in true progress to all mankind, permitting every one competent to 
have a share in the government, and basing its laws, its institutions, 
and its civilization upon the imperishable foundations of God's holy 
word. 

This is our country — 

"Great God! we thank thee for this home, 
This hoimteous birthright of the free, 
Where wanderer;- from afar may come, 
And bi'eathe the air of Liberty. 

"Still may her flowers untnimjjled spring. 
Her harvests wave, her cities rise ; 
And yet, till Time shall fold her, wing, 
Remain earths loveliest paradise." 

Some of the enemies that threaten the peace and stability of our 
country are these: — 

1. The principle of republican democracy itself as carried into 
practice among us has an inherent weakness, — a foe to national per- 
manence. 

The theory at the basis of this principle is, that all who are com- 
petent shall have, through their representatives, a share in the man- 
agement of the nation. But in practical working many of the com- 
petent, if by this term we mean the well read, judicious, benevolent, 



9 

and pious are excluded. For example, women have no vote even 
though competent from acquaintance with foots and events to employ 
it with intelligence, Avhile a man unable to read or write, with the 
ballot which he can not decipher, helps to govern the nation. How 
far it is practicable to include all the competent and exclude all the 
incompetent from the exercise of suffrage, is still with us an untried 
experiment. The fact is that many thousands who are ignorant of 
the very first elements of human knowledge have this privilege ; and 
we may well inquire can this be so without the greatest peril to the 
prosperity, even the continuance of our country. 

The inherent weakness of a republican democracy presents another 
phase when we observe the limited power of the executive depart- 
ment of our government, held in check moreover by the extreme 
jealousy of it liable to be entertained by the people at large. 

It is generally admitted as proved by the experience of nations, 
that, were it not for the encroachments of tlie sovereign in the exer- 
cise of his authority to aggrandize himself and his posterity, the 
strongest government, is the best. Could we have an angel or a per- 
fect man for emperor, who would not prefer an absolutism to any 
other form of rule that can be supposed '? 

As we have no angels or perfect men for rulers, we desire a repub- 
lic rather than a monarchy, but with its advantages this is its neces- 
sary defect. The central government which, to ensure permanence, 
should be very jjovverful, is very weak ; and if the chief executive 
officer and his advisers endeavor, in defence of the State and for the 
public welfare, to exert its full powers, there is danger lest the natural 
and ever wakeful jealousy of the ])eople may interpose obstacles to 
its exercise. 

Thus, in the commencement of tliat great struggle for life through 
which the nation has just passed, it was a question in the minds of 
some whether the executive possessed under the constitution the power 
to evoke a sullicient force for quelling a rebellion. And at every step 
in the progress of the mighty conflict, the necessary measures for 
maintaining the authority of the government where it became rein- 
stated, and for consummating the overthrow of the insurrection, were 
debated, as to tlieir propriety not merely, but as to their constitution- 
ality as well, by numbers of our citizens. 

2. Another enemy of our country arises from the very indepen- 
dence itself of which we are wont to boast. 

The isolation of each of the atoms that compose the mass tends to 



10 

a, disintegration of the whole. We rejoice in the separation an d 
disconncction'of tlie particles of the quicksilver, but, having made it 
necessary for every drop to maintain its own individuality and to roll 
on for itself, we then expect the whole mass to cohere and to become 
a solid and homogeneous ball. 

In an old monarchy like Great Britain everything leans upon every- 
thing else. If one card, of the child's cardhouse, tumble, all totter 
and fall ; but re2)lace the cards by squares of metal and cement their 
joined edges and we have the emblem of such a state. Each indivi- 
dual has a certain independence, since there are in him some elements 
of stability upon which others lean, but all his hope of being sus- 
tained is in their permanence. His station in life differs from that of 
others and his interests seem separated from theirs ; he has little hope 
of changing his position or bettering his condition ; as his forefathers 
lived so must he live, but these very differences and diversities seem 
to promote the common security. As the putting together of the 
legs of the surveyor's compass makes it topple over, so would it be 
were tlie diverse and opposite interests of such citizens to be made 
one and united ; and in such a community they may reverse the old 
adage, and say: " Divided Ave stand, united we fall." 

It is far different with us. We lack such a binding influence as 
the continual and manifest interdependence of everything in Great 
Britain affords. There all stability and prosperity seem to consist in 
the separation of individual interests ; with us, in the union of all the 
portions, I had almost said of all the individuals which compose the 
republic. The very fabric of the government itself depends on union. 

If a confederation of States, or a single State, or even a city or town 
in our land could leave our union and successfully maintain its inde- 
pendence, its separation from the remaining portions would be a 
death blow to the nation. If one State may go off, so may ten ; if one 
State may rise in arms against the central government, each one may 
rise against its neighbor ; if the compact is not a binding one by 
which they are joined together, neither is the compact a binding one 
by which the chief magistrate must vacate his seat when the period 
for which he was elected expires : a coup cVetat like that of Napoleon III. 
becomes virtuous, and oaths lose all their power. 

And yet, in connection with this union so necessary, so vital, there 
co-exists among us a principle most antagonistic to it, that of the freest 
individual independence. The rights of separate States are defined, 
jealously guarded, and in some instances, as is not surprising, even 



11 

magnified. E.icli city, town, village, and hatnlet has its own interests, 
sometimes in apparent conflict with the welfare of the common coun- 
try ; while all our education in the school, and not unfrequently, in 
the family, fosters individual independence. 

Each child, not to say each man, is daily surrounded by influences 
and subject to impressions that tend to promote an intense individu- 
alism in all. The American citizen seems ever marching to the ex- 
hilarating music of the poet's sentiment: — 

"Thy spirit, independence, let me share, 
Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye ; 
Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, 
Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky. " 

It may be well, within limits, to be thus intensely unfettered ; the 
danger is, lest we become also intensely selfish. The tendency of this 
individualism, unless it be modified and tempered, is to set up every 
man for himself against others, every state for itself, and each section 
for itself to the overthrow of all that is sacred and dear to us in our 
Republic. 

This intense separation of interests was our country's foe in 1788 
and 1789, when it hindered and sought to prevent the framing and 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. It was a foe in 1813, when it 
perilled the nation's safety by rendering the New England States 
lukewarm in the common defence. It was a foe, when, in 1832, it 
prompted a convention in South Carolina to declare laws of the Uni- 
ted States to be "null and void." It has become in our day a terrible 
foe, arraying against the genei'al government a confederated assem- 
blage of States, and plunging us into a terrible civil war. 

Such have been some of the awful results of an isolated independ- 
ence and a separation of interests. How great an enemy this princi- 
ple can be to our nation, we may learn by reflecting that its very life 
is in its union, while disunion is for the United States of America, na- 
tional death. 

3. Our limits permit a mere reference to another enemy of our coun- 
try : — Romanism. 

Rome is to-day more a temporal than a spiritual power. Her car- 
dinals, bishops, and priests, form a vast secret society having ramifi- 
cations in every portion of the world, and rapidly acquiring by every 
method possessions in real estate and valuable securities worth un- 
counted millions. 



12 

The principles of Romanism are tyrannical. Each lay member of 
the churcli of Home is part of a machine moved by the priests, these 
in turn by the bishops, and so upward until the will of the supreme 
pontiff is reached as the last moving power. Wonderfully truthful, as 
illustrating this spiritual tyranny of Rome, was a motto lately dis- 
played in a popish cathedral, on the occasion of the funeral of a de- 
ceased American officer : "lama soldier and I obey my general ; I 
am a Roman Catholic and I obey my bishop." Yes, "I obey," — not 
my Redeemer, Christ Jesus, — but " my bishop." If there be any 
lesson which modern history has so taught that it may be considered 
as a proved law, it is this, that Romanism is the direct and the direst 
foe to free institutions. This tyrannical powei-, with uncounted wealth, 
binding in iron chains the souls of its deluded subjects, and blinding 
by ignorance and superstition astonishing numbers of those whose suf- 
frages are to create our law-makers, and under God to decide the des- 
tinies of our republic, can not fail to be to it a gigantic enemy. 

TiiivS Roman power in the midst of us is not loyal to our govern- 
ment, nor can it be. Its oaths of allegiance must, by the very terms of 
prior oaths to the Roman See, contain a mental reservation that noth 
ing shall be done or thought of to the hindrance or injury of the 
Pope's temporal and spiritual reign. Every priest is, and understands 
himself to be, a subject of the Pope, who alone is his rightfully consti- 
tuted sovereign. In the language of the old monastic vows, he is 
pledged to "be in the hands of his superior, as the staff in the hand of 
an old man." If he seem to yield submission to another government, 
it is because he deems it a prop of support to the papacy. 

The controlling influence of this hierarchy upon the minds of public 
men in our country may be estimated from facts well known and un- 
contested. 

Why is it that certain laws, those, for example, requiring the regis- 
tration by the clergy of marriages solemnized by them, can be ignored 
and their provisions disregarded by the Roman priesthood 1 Why, 
that valuable property is given away by city councils or state legisla- 
tures, upon which Romish churches are reared, when appeals for sim- 
ilar grants to Protestant congregations are proverbially in vain 1 Why, 
that the Bible is to-day excluded from many public schools ? And 
why is it that, during the late civil war, while numbers of Protestant 
clergymen were driven from their homes, their houses of worship 
closed or diverted to secular uses, and their flocks scattered, — no Ro- 
mish church has been touched, and no Romish priest, whether he fa- 



13 

vored or opposed tlie suppression of tlie rebellion, molested 1 Other 
clergymen were obliged by the force of public opinion, or the interpo- 
sition of the authorities, to declare their sentiments and to avow 
whether their convictions placed them on the side of the United States 
Government or of its adversaries; but no such ordeal confronted the 
Romish priest. On the border line between the union and the rebel- 
lion, to-day he celebrates the mass undisturbed under the flag of the 
United States. To-moi'row hostile armies join in mortal combat ; he 
is undisturbed : the day following, tlie rebel flag waves in temporary 
defiance; he remains untouched: tha next, the traitors driven out, the 
Union regains its legitimate power; j^et he continues unmolested. In 
Charleston he sings his Te Deum over the fall of Sumter, in Boston 
for the overthrow of Vicksburg. 

We all know what Papal Rome was in her days of mastery, when 
emperors, kuigs, and princes paid their allegiance to the supreme 
poniiil' and resigned their thrones at his command. We have not for- 
gotten her persecutions when she made war upon the saints of God 
and was drunken with their blood, and we are ever asking : — is slie 
to be feared as much to-day as she was to be dreaded in former cen- 
turies : would she, if she had the same supremacy, use the chain, the 
isword, and the faggot as she once used them : are her principles and 
her aims wdiat they were when Luther, and Knox, and Calvin beheld 
in her the mother of the abo.'^iinations of the eakth ? 

To these questions the Pope's encyclical letter, so widely circulated 
during the past year, fully replies. In this document the Pope calls 
this century " our sad age," because of '• wicked men who spreading 
their disturbing opinions like the waves of a raging sea, and promis- 
ing liberty when they are slaves to corruption, endeavor by their per- 
nicious writings to overturn the foundations of the Christian Catholic 
religion and of civil society." 

Such is the language of the Pope of Rome, when in A. D., 18G5, he 
speaks of the Bible Christians of the Protestant world, the doctrines 
of whom he characterizes as the " monstrous opinions which particu- 
laily predominate in the present day." 

We will quote but one other sentence from this document, remarka- 
ble for its unblushing avowal of sentiments and its declaration of the 
propriety of employing measures supposed to have died, and to have 
been buried in the dark ages of the past. The Pope thus describes 
the advocates of civil and religious liberty as they exist in our own 
country ; — "There are a great number of men in the present day who 



14 

do not hesitate to affirm ' that the best condition of society is that in 
which the power of the laity is not compelled to inflict the penalties of 
the law upon violators of the Catholic religion' — they do not hesitate 
further to propogate this erroneous opinion, tei'med delirium by Grego- 
ry XVI., viz. 'Liberty of conscience and of wor.ship is the right of 
every man — a right which ought to be proclaimed and established by 
law in every well constituted state ; ' " 

Tliink of that, Protestant Americans of the nineteenth century, who 
cherisli as a holy legacy and tradition from Christian forefathers. 
"Freedom to worship God;" — and, as you hear the Bishops of 
Rome call their principles as to this freedom " ddiriian," will you hesi- 
tate to believe that Rome is now, as from its beginning, your deadly 
foe and the deadly foe of your country? 

In this monstrous form of antichrist do we not behold a vast secret 
society composed on principles hostile to human development and re- 
ligious progress, and as we witness its increasing wealth and daily 
augmenting power and resources, as we see how little true loyalty to 
a government founded upon the principles of our nation it can pos- 
sess, as we remember how, it is everywhere present, and that its devo- 
tees among us number four millions, do we exaggerate when we affirm 
that the power for evil, even of those whose foilure in their opposi- 
tion to the Union now awakens our gratitude to God, can not for a 
moment be compared with that wielded by this hostile hierarchy '. 

4. We mention linally in this enumeration of our country's foes ; — 
Infidelity. 

Want of faith in God, disbelief of his revealed word, a following 
after those who teach for truth doctrines opposed to that divinely in- 
spired rule of faith and practice, and a sad neglect of the duties it en- 
joins, — these are some of the indications of an infidelity growing in 
the midst of us. Among the thousands who have sought our shores 
there have been very many who, in their own lands, have been filled 
with this subtle poison. They have themselves learned to look with 
a cold eye upon all the manifestations of God's glory in his works, and 
God is not in all their thouglits. The journals they would read, the 
public discourses to which they will listen, the conversation they de- 
light in, must not contain anything of God which can not be interpret- 
ed as referring to, and ending in, second causes. And their baneful 
influence infects and degenerates numbers of our own countrymen, 
finding victims most readily among the young and the thoughtless. 

The accurate statements of opposition to God's Avord, which in for- 



15 

mer days defined English Deism and French Atheism, are not found 
upon the lips of those who have imbibed the poison, for it is current 
among us as a practical infidelity manifesting its presence especially in 
two forms. 

Absorption in business is one. The labor of the hands and of the 
head, by wliich the out\vard wants of man are sup])!ied, controls all the 
thoughts, and not uiifrcquently engrosses all the affections of the soul. 
To this every wakiug hour must be devoted, while the immortal in- 
tei'ests of our spiritual nature are ignored and disregarded. 

Another form of practical infidelity is seen in the rush after mere ex- 
citement in pleasure. Amusement alternates with many as the only 
other occupation of the mind when exacting business relaxes its hold 
upon the over-strained powers. The mind fluctuates between toil and 
pleasure, while no attention is paid to the claims of God and reli- 
gion upon a share of affection and regard. 

Hence the general neglect of reading the Scriptures ; hence the 
growing prevalence of the habit of spending the Sabbath as a day of 
recreation, God's house being passed by; hence the demand for a style 
of preaching which sliall not inculcate the old, time-honored truths of 
divine revelation, but which shall rather discuss the affairs of the na- 
tion, or the relations of art to outward worship, or scientific problems, 
or rest in the acknowledged duties of the second table of the law, or 
become a mere essay upon the lesser moralities of well-bred society. 

As in these and manifold other forms, we recognize the ])Ower of 
infidelity in our laud, does it not become all Cluistians to raise depre- 
cating hands to him who is thus despised and rejected, and to beseech 
Mm to remember the honor due unto his holy name whose glorious 
throne is from tlie beginning the place of our sanctuary ! 

Such are some of our country's foes 5 — the inherent weakness of a 
republican democracy, — the very independence itself of our citizens, — 
Romanism that lives only by destroying civil and religious liberty, and 
Infidelity, the more insidious because it springs up without the an- 
nouncement of distinct principles or dogmas, a shadowy phantom as 
undefined, yet as dangerous as the death-dealing miasma or the pesti- 
lence that walketh in darkness. 

If we borrow the wonted figure which illustrates the destiny, that 
none may foretell, of our dear native land ; — the ship is noble and 
Btaunch, well built, and launched upon her untried voyage with the 
prayers of the good folio vv^ing her: but in her timbers themselves is 
the hidden worm, among her very crew are the unwise and the un- 



16 

faithful, and pirates are cruising upon lier course. Shall the end 
bring her to success or disaster? 

Ti\e question would furnish no tlierno for a day of national thanks- 
giving, but for the reply that comes to ns from countless passages of 
God's word and finds its echo of triumph in our text: "A glorious 
high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary ! " 

Yes, this thought inspires our confidence, our hope, and our most 
grateful praises, as, like the ancient prophet, we reflect that — 

II. God has defended and can defend our country from all its foes, 
while obedience to him will secure the nation's peace, permanence and 
prosi:>erity. 

" Righteousness exalteth a nation." '* In all thy ways acknowledge 
Him, and He shall direct thy paths." " Truly in vain is salvation 
hoped for from the hills, and from, the multitude of mountains : truly 
in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.'' " Godliness is profi- 
table unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of 
that which is to come." 

Such are the clear utterances of Holy Scripture, teaching us that a 
Christian nation should ever be a monarchy over Avhich God must be 
recognized as the supreme reigning sovereign : "Jehovah is King 
for ever and ever ! " 

1. We may well consider hopefully the influence of true piety to 
make even a republic strong. 

By true piety we mean "the religion of principle, in distinction 
from the religion of impulse ; a spiritual religion, in distinction from 
a religion of forms ; a religion of which the Spirit of God, and not 
the wisdom, or the will of man, is the author ; a self-denying, and not 
a self-indulgent religion ; a religion that has a heavenward, and not an 
earthly tendency ; a practical religion in opposition to the abstractions 
of theory ; and a religion that is so full of Christ, that he is at the basis 
of all its duties and hopes, its centre, iti^living head, and its glory." 

The healing virtue that such piety can alone infuse is what we need 
to counteract prevailing worldliness, that, in spite of our churches, 
Bibles and ministers, infects the nation in its possession of exhaustless 
stores of material wealth. Natural productions of a varied climate 
and soil, mines of gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, and lead, 
wells of oil, rich beds of coal and other valuable deposits ; rewarding 
industry, aiding in the accumulation of Avealth, and affording such re- 



1 ( 

sources as never before and nowhere else in the world have been 
under the control of one people, — these are blessings from the hand 
of God, but at the same time blessings that imply accompanying 
temptations amid the enjoyment of the gifts to forget the Giver, and 
to set the heart supremely xi\)on this world. 

Suppose a deep infusion of Christianity to permeate the nation at 
large, bow would it not change for the better all our prospects as a 
people ! Suppose, instead of increasing an absorbed interest in mat- 
ters merely of this world, all the bounties which God has lavished 
upon US were received with hearts fully recognizing our high obliga- 
tions to Him, and used, as they might be, to extend His glory in the 
earth ; suppose a deep and continual interest in true religion to charac- 
terize our country, who would not rejoice in the hope that if there 
were in its frame- work some inherent weaknesses resulting from the 
imperfection of all human things, yet the foundations of our prosperity 
and permanence would never be shaken ! 

True piety will increase the general intelligence of the people. A 
truly pious man is universally an intelligent man. Religion is identi- 
fied with thought. The religion of the true God speaks its truths to 
liis children through a book, and through the preachci', which efiect 
an entrance for it into the mind by the presentation of thought ; 
while the communication of believers with their God is likewise in 
uttered words that are to convey to him in prayer the results of their 
thought. Hence you never hear of the conversion of an illiterate mau 
but you hear immediately that he is learning to read. He learns to 
read, and every passage of Scripture with which he becomes familiar, 
and every religious discourse that illustrates or enforces the word of 
God, and every new religious treatise which finds its way into his 
hands adds to the sum of his information and increases his intelligence. 
One day iu seven is used by all such individuals to promote their ac- 
quaintance with important truths so as to increase their own in- 
telligence, that of their households, and even the mental advance- 
ment of the whole community around them. The spectacle of an 
ignorant voter unable to read, who is a pious man, is seldom seen. 
The demagogue may not be troubled because of the number of the 
utterly ignorant thus engaged remotely in making the laws and gov- 
erning the State, but the Christian statesman, well knowing how fatal 
is ignorance to the nation's welfare, rejoices to behold true piety 
banishing it as the sun dispels the darkness of night. 

Piety increases confidence between the rulers and the ruled. If we 



18 

could see in places of trust and authority such men as fear God and 
work righteousness, it needs no demonstration to prove that the mass 
of the pco[)]e would feel that in th(!ir hands all the interests of the na- 
tion would be safe. While, on the other hand, it is not the truly- 
pious that make up the mob, irresolute, swayed hither and thither, 
and led into factious opposition to the powers that be. Who will for 
one moment doubt that if the majority of our rulers and of our people 
were obedient to the letter and to the spirit of God's word, we might 
confidently trust that the republic would go on its prosperous course 
directed by the wisdom and guarded by the watchfulness of the 
glorious covenant-keeping Jehovah. His lofty throne is from the be- 
ginning the place of our sanctuary ! 

It is the ignorant mob that makes us tremble. The men of loose, 
immoral life are the natural tools of the demagogue ; they who seek 
office to gratify their avarice and ambition, and they who when raised 
thither trample upon the rights or squander the resources of the na- 
tion, are those whose consciences are not enlightened by God's word. 
But true piety transforms imiuoral, into moral men, brings its instruc- 
tions to render the ignorant intelligent, awakens the voice of con- 
science in the heart of the ruler to re-echo and enforce the authority of 
the voice of God. 

Thus I'ighteousness exalteth a nation. 

2. True piety will bind and cement our nation. 

When we meditate upon the separating influences that tend to sever 
the citizens of such a republic as our own, can we fail to be impress- 
ed with the need of some powerful and connecting tie to counteract 
them, and bind us with indissoluble bonds? And where shall we 
hopefully seek such a tie, where find these bonds so surely as in true 
piety that tends to disunite none, but to cause all to grow together into 
one body in Christ Jesus. 

A distinguished poet of ancient Rome begins one of his immortal 
odes with these words: "I hate the uninitiated common crowd." 
This sentiment is a specimen of the innate principle in depraved hu- 
man nature which tends to isolate and disunite more and more widely 
man from man. The rich, the educated, the refined, while unchanged 
by the Holy Spirit, despise and learn to hate the poor, the ignorant, 
the less polished ; while the poor is separated even from his neighbor. 
What a contrast to such division of interest and selfishness of conduct 
is presented when we heed the injunctions of God's word : " Love 
the brethren," — "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," — " As we 



19 

have, therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men," — " Honor 
all men," — "Having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be 
pitiful, be courteous." 

Such are the teachings of true piety. The truly Christian man will 
not wrap himself in comfort and luxurious ease while his neighbor 
pines in want and sorrow, unfriended and neglected. He will love to 
seek and to save that which is lost ; he will, as did his divine Master, 
go about doing good ; and no fellow being will be too humble, no 
dwelling too lowly, no afliicted heart, by reason of social position, too 
far distant from him, to receive and be blessed by the gentle, kindly 
influences of his sympathy and friendliness. 

Again and again have we heard in our day "Fraternity" echoed as 
the watchword of nationality, and with a tone and enthusiasm that 
seemed to import the sincerity and fervor of real brotherhood. But 
there is no true fraternity in aught beside Christianity. There is no 
such uniting influence in the wide world as the cross of that Saviour 
who died that men widely dissevered, difiiering in complexion, differ- 
ing in customs, in language, in the education of their faculiies, and 
united in little but the common heritage of sin and the need of re- 
demption, might be one in Christ Jesus. So that, if their languages 
even should have no other common words, they might all be able to 
clasp hands and find a universal medium of communication as they 
say together: — Eden, Jehovah, Jesus, Paradise, Hallelujah, 
Amen. 

And if in a republic like our own the idea of individual indepen- 
dence ever seem to become a separator of men, well may we summon 
the aid of religion to counteract sucli an evil, assured that Piety will 
become for us the eftectual, as it is the only true binder. 

This union in the blessings of a common salvation, this interest in tho 
blood of a comnron Redeemer, this obedience to the one law of the 
only living aiul true God, this Christian love joining heart to heart 
in heavenly aflection, would serve to hold our citizens forever united, 
even though the stars of our flag should be multiplied by ten, and its 
folds sweep over the entire western continent. A oneness of religious 
sentiment and interest would thus bind fast the dwellers of the widest 
extended territory. The burnished golden chain of Christian love 
shall clasp us to each other in bright and indissoluble bonds. 

3. We may point to trut; piety as the only antidote to the destruc- 
tive influences of Romanism and Infidelity. 

This statement needs no argument, for what is Romanism but an 



20 

opposition in one form to true piety, and what Infidelity but an opposi- 
tion in another form to true piety. 

What is Romanism"? There was a time when the gospel was 
preached in its purity, and received with sincerity by those who dwelt 
at Rome. But the gold became dim and the fine gold changed, and, 
as centuries revolved, instead of following Christ in meekness and 
humbleness, the bishops of Ronao added to their temporal power, gained 
authority over nations and kingdoms, and abandoned the simplicity 
of the gospel for splendid schemes of worldly ambition. It may have 
been that even in her most corrupt days there were those among her 
members who had not bowed the knee to the Baal of her pollutions, 
but rested upon the atonement of Jesus Ciu"ist as the only ground of 
their salvation. Such there may be even now, although borne down 
and overpowered by the gross heresies that have eaten out all the life 
of an apostate organization, having no element of a church save the 
name only. 

What is Rom.anism 1 It is opposition to God's commands, all 
broken by her doctrines. It is opposition to God's word forbidden or 
set at naught. It is opposition to salvation by the atonement of 
Christ alone. It is a system of penances and indulgences. It is Sab- 
bath breaking and licentiousness. It is gorgeous rites, tinselled robes 
and the vanities of a pompous ritual. It is the tyranny of the priest- 
hood and the shivery of the people. It is always and eveiy where the 
foe of progress, of enlightened civilization, of Christian Liberty. 

And true piety, universally embraced would slay this monster. True 
piety upholds God's commands, true piety bases itself upon, and ever 
lives, by God's holy word. True piety looks foi" eternal life only from 
the sacrifice, mediation, and intercession of God's dear Son. True 
piety has no faith in penance, alms, or confession to priests to cleanse 
from sin. True piety sustains the sacredness of the Sabbath, and en- 
forces the moral law. True piety teaches that all real believers in 
Jesus are God's kings and priests ; and, elevating the masses of the 
nation, carries on the torch of knowledge and Christian civilization to 
illumine every dark corner of the earth. 

Piety, then, is the great weapon to use against Romanism. If any 
one ask, how can I best oppose this national foe, the answer comes : 
by becoming more Christ-like yourself; by recommending true piety 
by your own life ; by increasing through your eflPbrts the number of 
the truly pious. 

Yes, true piety will dissipate the darkness of ignorance ; it will dif- 



21 

fuse the Bible far nntl wide llircugb llie land ; it will gather into Sab- 
bath schools the children of those now igiioi'ant, degraded, and vicious ; 
and, by the aid of the Sjiirit poured out from on higli, it will cause 
multitudes of the superstitious to abandon their vain idols and yield 
allegiance to Jesus Christ. 

To the destruction of Infidelity, also the same remedy is applicable. 
Infidelity, want of faith in God's word, in God's Son, in God's plan of 
salvation, in God's day, in God's house, in such a life as God com- 
mands, and in such rewards and punishments as he has decreed ; what 
shall save us as a nation from this direful foe, but true piety ; and this 
will save us as we fly to God's high throne, so glorious, so ancient, so 
surely our sanctuary and our asylum ! 

And our confidence and trust in God is increased and all our hope 
of deliverance from every foe to our nation established as we review, 

4. What God has done in behalf of our nation. 

In years long past, God laid the foundations of our country in the 
piety and the atflictions of those forefathers who sought in these 
western wilds to establish civil and religious liberty and a Christian na- 
tion. His hand was in our revolutionary struggle. He gave us a 
Wasliington, a man of prayer and of piety; he marked out our course 
in those early days of experiment Avhile, with scarce any precedent to 
guide them, the ftithers of our legislation and diplomacy felt their way 
toward the policy which has made us strong and great. And oh, how 
God has blessed us during tlie year now closing ! His hand stayed 
the effusion of blood, his voice spake peace once more to our distracted 
land, he gave success to our armies battling to restore or compel com- 
plete obedience to the laws. 

God has so ordered it that slavery, for the overthrow of which good 
men in all portions of the land have prayed, should meet its death the 
past year. God graciously decreed that just previous to this thanks- 
giving-day it should be forever removed from us by an amendment of 
the Constitution, proposed and consummated in a reasonable and 
legal method. God has overruled even the sad affliction that over- 
whelmed the nation with heartfelt grief and clothed it in mourning, 
while all wept the death of their honest, capable, and indefatigable 
Chief jMagistrate ; so that it has resulted in the quelling of angiy 
feelings at home, and awakening sentiments of sympathy and interest 
abroad. God has given us abundant harvests and fruitful seasons, fill- 
ing our hearts with food and gladness. God is noAv permitting us to 
indulge the cheerful expectation of soon beholding our land freed from 



22 

many of its evils, with its citizens more truly united than ever before, 
and with the favor of his own gracious spirit visiting it with his copi- 
ous and blessed effusions, to gladden and beautify it with heavenly 
mercies. 

Yes, it is with these astonishing blessings, crowning with his favor 
this year of the right hand of the Most High, that we enter his house 
with songs of rejoicings to-day. His glorious high throne from the 
beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. It is our asylum from all our 
foes. However numerous or powerful they may be, whether they ap- 
proach us from without or within, if our nation may but become a 
truly and deeply pious people whose God is the Lord ; this dear native 
land of ouis shall overcome them all, amidst frowning and threatening 
dangers still be unharmed : shall stem the billows and outride the 
storm, 

"Like those trim skiflV, unknown of yore, 
On winding lakes and rivers wide, 
Tliat a,sk no aid of sail or oar, 
That fear no spite of wind or tide," 

How appropriately, then, are we directed, and how does it become 
us to approach to the sanctuary of God's throne with our thanks- 
givings. 

He loves to hear our praises. He will accept the offering of our 
grateful hearts. 

"Give unto Jeiiovaii, O ye mighty, give untojKHOvAii glory and strength. Give 
imto Jehovah the glory due unto his name ; worship Jehovah in the heanty of holi- 
ness. 

Jehovah sitteth upon the flood ; yea Jehovah sitteth king forever. 

Jehovah will give strength unto his pcojile; Jehovah will bless his people with 
peace.'' 

The President of the United States, in appointing a day of special 
thanksgiving for God's wonderful mercies to the nation, also urges us 
to confess "our national sins, and with one heart and one mind im- 
plore the divine guidance in the ways of national virtue and holiness." 
To the place of our sanctuary then should heartfelt and humble prayers 
be borne. 

The temple of Jehovah, the ancient sanctuary of his chosen people, 
had the privilege of an asylum : all who fled thither were safe. So, in 



23 

the exercise of true piety are we, as a people, to seek our safety. And, 
as in former days, tliose who liad incurred their king's displeasure has- 
tened to the sacred temple, and, taking liold of the horns of the altar, 
secured protection and pardon, so let us flee unto the glorious high 
throne on which Jehovah sits ; and, clinging in faith, and prayer to 
that throne, no evil tiling shall cause us to tremble. We will confess 
our national sins; our pride, our vanity, our Sabbath-breaking, our 
worldliness, our consent to cruel human bondage, our yielding to Ro- 
manism, and our leanings toward Infidelity. O Loi-d hear, O Lord 
forgive. Pardon O Glorious King, pardon. Hear the cry of thy peo- 
ple, and take away all their guilt ! 

Moreover, amid these themes of general and national interest, let us 
not forget — 

Our personal obligations to become the Lord's, and to promote pure 
religion by our influence and example. 

Only as we infuse true piety into our nation, we have seen, can we 
make it sure that her foundations shall not be shaken. Oh how im- 
portant is it that this true piety fill every one of our hearts ; that you, 
my hearer, who love your country, and cherish her good name, and 
desire her perpetuity and glory, begin the great work of deciding her 
stability and grandeur by a personal consecration of your heart and 
life to the great Jehovah, King of our Christian land ! 

The earth redeemed from sin is to be his and the fullness thereof. 
This nation may have the distinguished honor of setting up his glorious 
high throne of universal dominion, first of all the nations, in the sense 
of an entire obedience to that God who has been from the beginning 
our help, of a hearty cooperation in extending his sway to all peoples 
and kindreds and tongues. What a happy career, how sublime a 
destiny! And, if this, as all the other great works of our age of so- 
cial power, is to be accomplished by the personal influence of man 
upon man, what a responsibility rests upon each and every one of us 
to be truly pious, as we erect this day in our hearts Jehovah's 
throne. 

This submission will enable us, with a patriot's hope and a Chris- 
tian's confidence to ado})t the almost prophetic words of the Chief 
Magistrate of this happy land, spoken years since, but still in the glad 
future by our nation's piety to be fulfilled ; 

"Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag, that 
glorious flag of our country, and nail it below the cross ; and while it 



24 

hangs floating beneath the cross exclaun, Christ first: our country 
next." 

Now UNTO THE KING ETERNAT., IMMORTAE, INVISI15EE, THE ONLY WISE 
GOD OUK SAVIOUR, BE GEORY AND MAJESTY, DOMINION AND POWER, BOTH 
NOAV AND FOREVER. AMEN. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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